The Controversy Over Including Grief in The DSM-5 Continues . . .

The American Psychiatric Association is considering the inclusion of grief in the DSM-5. A lot of people are unhappy about this prospect and the effects it will most likely have on grief, mental health diagnosis, and the ways in which it will pathologize grief. Dr. Richard Friedman has a great article in the New England Journal of Medicine. He says “for most people, grief resolves naturally on its own. Because the vast majority of bereaved and clinically depressed patients are seen by primary care practitioners, it is critical that such practitioners be skilled at distinguishing between clinical depression, which requires treatment, and uncomplicated grief, which is an entirely normal emotional response to loss. The medical profession should normalize, not medicalize, grief.” You can read the entire article by clicking here.

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